Unexplainable Thoughts
by Flusion
Summary: Michael wasn't ready for it, but when he meets a certain pink haired girl it changes him. He is distracted by his thoughts, creating a danger for all near him.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Okay so this is just a bit of a pilot for another story I've been thinking about since I started playing XD Gale of Darkness again. Whether or not I continue this story will probably be determined by how much, if any, feed back I get. This pairing which I honestly don't know the ship name for, came as a quick thought into my head completely unexpected. I was just playing XD when I battled Lovrina for the first time and I was like, "Hey they sound like a cute couple." without further ado, here Is the first chapter(maybe) of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon

He didn't know which part of her was the most distracting when he first met her. Was it her hair, nearly as long as her body, dyed a bright shade of pink. Was it her slender body, with just barely detectable curves? Was it her eyes? They were a shade of pink quite similar to her hair. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not she also wore pink contact lenses. Or perhaps it was he general demeanor, confident in a sassy kind of way.

She rested her chin on her thumb and index finger. "Oh Naps was being naughty again? I'll so have to punish him for that, a whole bunch!" Was it her voice? Honestly Michael couldn't tell. He couldn't tell what about Lovrina made her so much different than any other girl he had met.

Maybe it was all of those things at once that made her such a distracting character during battle. While fighting her he had taken multiple hits to his Pokemon that could have been avoidable. His own thoughts and feelings had allowed for the pink haired woman to make both his espeon, and Teddiursa faint. He had finished the battle by the skin of his teeth. His final Pokemon was a Spinarak just saved from another member of Cipher, not one hour before.

Michael was once again distracted by the woman when she waltzed out of the Cipher research facility. He shook himself in order to get rid of his thoughts. He still had to worry about getting professor Krane back to head quarters.

"Lets go Professor." Michael said. As soon as he said that though, the professor interrupted him to pick some object up of from the ground.

"This looks important, I think we should take it back to HQ with us to be examined." Professor Krane said, holding the object, it looked like some kind of chip, up to the light.

"Yeah" Michael said distractedly. "Lets go," he repeated himself now.

After they rode the elevator up to the top of the facility, they headed outside, and into the desert air. At this point it was becoming quite dark outside. With the dark in the desert came the cold, and Michael shivered.

He hopped onto his parked motorbike and waited for the professor to get on behind him. When he finally did, Michael started the engine to the small vehicle he could call his own. Instantly they where off and out into the darkening landscape. The terrain around the Cipher lab was barren but not desert like most people think of it. The Orre region didn't start to get truly sandy for a long distance north.

The entire trip back to the lab, a few hours of motoring, Michael was distracted by his thoughts. Like most adolescent men, most of his thoughts where on girls. Specifically, one girl, a girl named Lovrina.

If professor Krane noticed his unbalanced disposition, he didn't mention. Their luck was that there was no traffic to avoid on the way back to the Pokemon lab. If there had been, Michael very well could have crashed.

All through the next day, with talk and demonstrations of the purification machine, to everyone around him, Michael didn't seem himself. Even his own mother was unable to decipher her son's thoughts. There was only one person there who got even close to knowing what was happening on in his mind, and that was because of her immature personality.

Michael himself did not know what to think of his own thoughts. Much of the time he was not thinking about Lovrina, but forcing himself to not think about her. In all of his adolescent thoughts, he kept telling himself that even if he pursued her, it wouldn't work out, at least not for him.

Lovrina would probably just manipulate him into some situation to benefit Cipher. That was the kind of thing he thought she would do, based upon what little he knew about the girl. Also he was completely terrified of whatever punishment Naps had to go through for his failures. Once again he believed based on what he thought of her personality that it would be something truly horrifying.

It was lunch time at the HQ and Michael was in the lunch room watching ONBS on the television. As he munched on a sandwich his younger sister approached. The blue haired girl's name was Jovi.

"Hello brother. Good noon." Jovi said.

Michael just grunted though the breed and meat of his sandwich. The news right now was talking about Pokeballs returning to sale in the Orre region. The little bits of technology were not often used, considering that much of the Orre region lacked wild Pokemon. The vast majority of Pokemon being trained in Orre where invasive species.

"Jovi said h-e-l-l-o. How are you?" Everybody in the lab hated the fact that Jovi had picked the habit of speaking about herself in third person. No one knew where the habit came from, but it thoroughly creeped every single person that met her out.

Michael swallowed the rest of the food in his mouth. "I'm doing fine. I'm a little bit tired though, considering I had a twenty hour day of Pokemon battles, and excitement."

Jovi narrowed her eyes. "hmm... What happened at the Cipher lab, you've been acting more than a little bit odd. Jovi thinks that you met somebody down there that made you unnerved. Or was the word distracted...?" she trailed off.

Michael waved his arms in the air attempting to wave her off, "y-you've got the wrong idea. Nothing happened other than a few battles." He sweat dropped. How did my little naïve sister notice, while everyone else didn't bat an eye?

"Jovi doesn't think so, big brother."

"Hey I'm telling you I'm fine." Michael said, getting more than a little frustrated. He continued to watch the news and began ignoring his sister.

"Yes well, big brother. Jovi thinks that something isn't necessarily wrong. Maybe it was what Jovi said, that big brother met someone. Maybe a girl." she didn't even give Michael time to react, because she skipped off.

 _yeah i'm definitely not thinking about Lovrina right now, with her long hair and sassy eyes. Wait, dammit_

AN: I must admit that Jovi was pretty entertaining to write dialogue for.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So this chapter came out much quicker than I thought it would. Mostly I think it is due to the fact that the chapters for this story are going to be shorter than for my other story. Depending on how engrossed into this story I get, my chapters might stay shorter, or they may increase in length until I'm pumping out 4,000 word chapters for both my stories.**

"Hey Michael are you listening to me? I want you to take this chip to Nett. He is the only person I know who has the talent to crack this thing's security." professor Krane said, waving the chip in front of Michael's face.

"Huh? Uh, sure. Where to again. Who am I going to deliver this to?" Michael said as he stared off at a tree not some distance away.

Professor Krane sighed. "So you weren't listening to me eh? Anyway it seems as if you've had your head in the clouds recently. Try to get that straightened out. I want you to take this chip to Nett he is an old accomplice of mine, who may be able to crack the security on this thing. You should find him in Pyrite town. He is the head of ONBS, thusly a sure ally.

Michael's eyes widened at the mention of ONBS. That was quite an honor, getting to meet a famous person. _What am I thinking? My mother is a famous person, the assistant for Professor Krane, who is also famous. I battled with a leading member of Cipher quite recently too..._ his thoughts trailed of again into their own little land.

Thoughts about Lovrina had been plaguing him since his first meeting and subsequent battle. For whatever reason, he was unable to get his mind off of her. There was something alluring about her, but he couldn't quite guess what.

The professor waived his hand with the chip in it again, in order to get Michael's attention. His efforts bore fruit, as it did succeed in gaining Michael back from the land of imagination. One Michael was once again focusing on professor Krane, the knowledgeable man handed him the chip.

"Don't let anything happen to that okay? It's quite important." he said. Michael nodded.

After the little exchange with the professor Michael prepped all three of his Pokemon for the journey. His preparation consisted of healing them at the HQ's nurse facility, feeding them, and allowing them to get some exercise. This of course landed him a bit of trouble.

His Spinarak, which he stupidly let out of it's ball without supervision, had made a mess of one of the HQ's doors. Seeing that his Spinarak was a shadow Pokemon, it was quite temperamental and every emotion it experienced was in the extreme. It didn't know how to act on these feelings either. The right entrance doors and the windows and walls to the side, where completely gummed up with his Spinarak's webbing. The little fiasco delayed him by an hour as his mother caught the spider as it completed the act.

An hour of apologies, and clean up later, and with Spinarak safely inside of it's ball, he was mounting his bike. This was when Jovi approached him for the first time since lunch a few days ago.

She said one thing. More like a whisper, audible only to him and her. "Jovi knows what's wrong." she proceeded to walk away innocently as if nothing creepy at all had happened, her arms held behind her back in a show of innocence.

Michael suffered some cold chills, then he started his bike's engine. He had a few hours of traveling ahead of him. His goal was the town of rogues, Pyrite town. He couldn't imagine why someone such as the leader of the ONBS corporation would start something in such a nasty little place.

He supposed in the end that it had to do with the economy. When they first started, getting anything running must have been pretty difficult and expensive. Now they were world famous for their honest news. Very little propaganda went into what they recorded. They where a company based on finding the truth.

With hours of motoring ahead of him, Michael couldn't help but let his thoughts wander yet again to Lovrina, the girl he just met, yet who had piqued his interests like no other. He spent the two-ish hours driving to the town of rogues thinking about her. He wasn't trying to live some fantasy, just replaying his memories of her in his own head. The way she did a little spin when she sent out her first Pokemon into battle. The way her pinkened lips pouted when he defeated her Delcatty.

While the professor had charged him with using the snag machine to save all shadow Pokemon from their trainers, it wasn't as easy as it seemed. If Michael threw the pokeball while the target was healthy it resisted easily, and then the trainer was on their guard. When the trainer was aware of his snag machine, it became many times harder to take their Pokemon, because they became protective. Even members of Cipher, heartless as they where, still had hearts, so to speak, and attempted to save their Pokemon from theft.

He also had to catch the Pokemon while the trainer was off of their guard. If they where paying attention when he threw the ball, all they had to do was recall their Pokemon, or smack it out of the air. Usually it was the latter. He had only managed to capture two shadow Pokemon so far. The second hadn't even been purified yet.

The best remedy for shadow Pokemon was to spend time with them, temperamental as they where. He was sure that his Spinarak was close to opening it's heart. Michael preferred to purify Pokemon the old fashioned way. While it was much more time consuming, and he could only do it one at a time, it made for a much better bonding experience with the Pokemon. He did not agree with leaving them in a machine to be purified on their own.

Soon it was nearly noon, as well as nearly time to get to Pyrite. In the desert like landscape that covered most of the Orre region, towns could be seen from long distances away. Michael could see that in the noon day sun, he was a few minutes away from the town of rogues. While Michael had never been to Pyrite town, he had heard storied of it from his mother.

It was likely that he was going to be prompted to have a battle with nearly everybody in the town. There where plenty of shady characters there who where just as likely to steal from him as have a battle. The town's center piece, one of the few battling stadiums still active, considering the resort that had popped up southeast of the town, was dominating the view. The shadow of the giant globe covered nearly the entire town.

Once Michael actually entered the town he found a spot to park it motor bike, then he proceeded to chain it up every which way. With that a success he headed out into the streets. Immediately he was deterred by a woman running by. Not soon after she had a passed, a man holding large recording camera followed.

"Wait!" he said. Soon they were both out of sight. _Well that was weird._

Michael made his way through the town, and true to his mother's word no less than twenty people challenged him to a battle, and none of them would take no for an answer. Not many of them were very good trainers though, and all it took to beat them was his Spinarak. Even though his shadow Pokemon was unpredictable and would not be very likely to obey his battle commands, it still worked out just fine. One of the best ways, he had found, for opening a show Pokemon's heart to him was to battle alongside it.

After another hour of wading through trainers and pickpockets he finally came to the entrance of the ONBS news building. Inside he was greeted by a nice receptionist at the desk, who gave him more than a little bit of background information on ONBS, and what they did. Michael explored the facility at his leisure unimpeded. His mission was to look for Nett, but he kept getting side tracked. Eventually luck smiled upon him when he entered a room with a single man in it at a desk. He looked quite official and important.

"Hello I was wondering if you could help me. I'm looking for a man named Nett. I was sent by Professor Krane to deliver something to him." Michael said.

"Yes well you came to the right place. My name is Secc and I'm Nett's personal secretary. I handle all of his accounts and the like. I'll page him to tell him he has a visitor, just follow the stairs outside my office and they should lead you to his room, and apartment. They are on the top floor of the building so it shouldn't be too hard to find." Secc said, as he typed something on his computer.

Michael just nodded his head and left the room, searching for the stairs that Secc mentioned. It took less than a few seconds of looking around for Michael to find the staircase, considering that it was right outside Secc's office.

Going up the staircase exposed Michael to the afternoon air, which was only getting hotter as the day went on. Not that it bothered Michael much. He had lived in the desert region for all of his life and was quite used to the extreme temperatures.

In front of a steel sliding door stood a man attempting to look intimidating. In truth, he was scrawnier than Michael which was saying something. Michael was by no means a strong man. He was more of the athletic running type of guy. He couldn't lift much weight, but he had a tall and wiry frame.

"Hello I have a delivery for Mister Nett." Michael said.

"I'm sorry sir, but Nett is not taking anybody at this moment. He is quite busy." the door man said.

Suddenly a muffled voice could be heard coming through the steel sliding doors.

"Let him in. I was expecting a delivery from professor Krane. Secc paged me about it." the voice said. It probably belonged to Nett but Michael was not completely sure. Considering that he responded though, it probably was.

"Yes sir, right away sir." the door man moved out of the way.

Michael approached the door and it automatically slid open revealing a man at a desk typing on a computer while talking to yet another man.

Once he entered the room, the door closed concealing the three from the outside world.

The man at the desk stopped his task in order to speak to Michael. "Okay so I presume that you are Michael?" Michael nodded, "Okay then. My name is Nett, and the man in front of you there is Bitt. I understand that you have a special delivery from the professor to me?"

"Yeah. We weren't able to get through the security system in this chip at the lab. Professor Krane thought you might be able to do it." Michael said.

Nett leaned back in his chair, raising his arm to act as extra cushioning for his head. "That be the truth. I can probably get into that chip, just give me a few hours. I'm sure that every single file on that thing has it's own specific security system..." he trailed off.

Michael handed the chip to Nett and he immediately set about cracking the thing.

"Michael you can go hand out some where this probably won't be finished until evening. Go kill some time at the Colosseum or something. I understand that you are quite the skilled battler. Whatever you do just make sure you're back to pick this thing up in a few hours. Don't want you getting lost and mugged in the streets, now do we?" he laughed even as he was focusing on completing the task just issued to him.

While Michael did intend to leave, he had no intention of going to the Colosseum. He had had plenty of battling for the day. No, he would probably go to a diner and get himself a late lunch. Michael made his way through the building, passing by familiar hallways, and familiar faces on his way out.

"Have a nice day!" the lady at the reception desk said as she waved goodbye to Michael.

Outside of the ONBS building, Michael bought a bottle of moo moo milk to hold himself off until he found a place to eat. He had a certain weakness for milk. It did not matter whether it was strawberry, chocolate, or any other random flavor society could think up. He would like it because he liked milk.

In the crowds he waded through to get to a diner- the streets where especially narrow- he continued to battle strangers. Eventually Michael came to an intersection, where he could see a nice looking place, if anything could be considered nice in the rustic town of Pyrite. All the buildings where made of iron or steel. And most had large chunks of rust coating them.

He crossed the street, making his way through to the other side of the road where the diner was at.

Suddenly he felt a small, soft hand grip his arm. Michael was pulled into an alley, out of sight of the public. He was dragged around a small corner in the alley. Now nobody passing by would be able to see him at all. In the entire ordeal he wasn't able to get a look at his captor.

Then he was slammed into the wall of whatever building they were behind. It left him seeing stars. As quick as he was able to, he shook his dizziness away. What stood before him, hands on her hips, was the person his thoughts had been distracted with for the past few days. The person angrily looking down at him was none other than Lovrina.

 **AN: I would really like to hear from any of you out there, my readers. I want to know your thoughts because when you review or send me a PM about this story it lets me know that people actually care as they read this.**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I feel like these things are pumping out of me like air. I've had a lot of free time recently and had nothing better to do except write.**

"I totally know what you're thinking. 'Why is Lovrina, a team Cipher admin here in Pyrite town?' Well I'll tell you. After my little blunder in the lab, no thanks to you, professor Krane got away, and now we are on a chip hunt. We've located the chip, but I'm not the head of this operation. No I'm not even supposed to be here, but I knew you would be here." Lovrina had him up against the wall with both of her small hands on opposite shoulders. "I came here of my own free will to stop you. I knew that you would be here and I came to stop you from getting in Cipher's way."

At that, she gripped his shirt in both of her hands and slammed him back into the wall again. Michael was terrified of the strength in that small body she possessed. Even though she couldn't have weighed very much. She definitely weighed much less than him, she was terrifying. Michael swallowed in terror at her aggression. He was unable to find any words to speak to her.

Even while she had him in a dangerous position, Michael couldn't help but think that she was something to look at. It didn't help that she was staring right at him.

"This is where I'm going to keep you until I'm sure the mission is over. You might as well get comfortable." at this she unleashed her Luvdisc from it's pokeball. Then she took his belt off, and with it, his pokeballs. "Luvdisc make sure that he doesn't move too much dear. I so don't want to have to clean a splattered mess, so no killing though." she smiled a wicked smile.

With that she stepped back from Michael to observe him and his terrified and distracted look. Even though he was in quite a bit of danger, and he was shaking from the fear, he was staring at Lovrina. She noticed too.

"What are you looking at?" she said, frowning at him.

"What? I'm n-not looking at anything." Michael said.

"What!" she pouted, at the same time managing to sound angry, "are you saying that I'm nothing to look at. Are you saying that I'm not pretty? After all this work I put into my looks? You should be ashamed of saying something like that to a girls face. It so totally hurts our feelings you know?" Then she kicked his shin.

Michael fell over in pain, holding onto his precious leg. He was sure that that kick was going to leave a mark. Probably a large ugly bruise. As he was on the ground rocking in pain, Lovrina's Luvdisc assaulted him with a spray of water. The sudden cold wetness shocked him. It was a drastic temperature change from the high heat of mid afternoon.

"There now, that's a good boy. He has totally learned his lesson now I think Luvdisc." Lovrina crouched low to the ground so that she could stare at him with her pretty, pink eyes. "I want two things form you while you are here okay? First off, I like to be complimented, so make me happy. Second," she held up two fingers, " I want to know the name of the boy I'm torturing, it make's it so totally much more personal."

"Uh, my name is Michael?" Michael said. Now he was greatly confused by the pretty girl in front of him.

"And?" Lovrina stared into his eyes, as if she was trying to suck out his soul.

"You have very pretty eyes..." he mumbled.

Lovrina stood back up from her crouched position, "that's what I thought how hard was that now?"

They sat, and stood like that for some time. In silence. A silence in which Michael continued to stare at Lovrina. As much as the girl intrigued him. He had to escape and warn Nett. So while she leaned against the wall he sat against, he formed a plan.

It was a plan that involved him knocking Lovrina down, as much as he hated it. Once the plan was fully formed, Michael took action.

He swept out his leg, kicking her feet out from under her. The action forced her head into the wall and she immediately lost consciousness, though Michael didn't see it happen. Michael took off, knowing that the Luvdisc would be too worried about it's master to attack him. He sprinted back down the alley and out into the public.

Michael weaved through the crowd of people outside in the street. Quick as he could he made his way back to ONBS. Everything seemed to be okay when he got there. No fires, nothing looked smashed.

Michael made his way through the levels of the building, he didn't encounter anybody, team Cipher members or ONBS news members. The elevators where far to slow for his liking, but the only staircase in the building was the stairs up into Nett's office.

As soon as he made his way up into the open air before Nett's office, he was assaulted by Nett himself. The man jumped at him. He looked a little worse for wear, but mostly unharmed.

"I'm sorry Michael, but it seems you came too late. Cipher was here and they took the chip back. I managed to save a few of the locked files into a small flash drive, but I wasn't able to even start decoding them. At this rate it is going to take a few days, so I would suggest for you to just go home while I clean up. We have to fix up the building before I can put this into my priority list. Sorry." Nett said.

"Yeah I understand." Michael said, "I'll just go then. I'm sure that you know the professor's email." Michael walked out and down the stairs. This was when he remembered that Lovrina had his Pokemon. All he could hope for was that she was still there.

Michael turned the corner into the dark alley. He sprinted down the long passage and turned the corner to feel relief. Then he felt horror, because Lovrina's Luvdisc looked at him with pleading eyes. Still lying on the ground was Lovrina. She was bleeding from the head.

Quickly, trying not to panic, at the injured, and maybe dying person in front of him, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. Pyrite town didn't have a hospital, and his only thought was to call his mother.

He dialed the number and let it ring while he waited for her to pick up. Thankfully not long after the phone began to ring, his mother picked up.

"Yes sweety?"

"Um, I accidentally hurt a member of team Cipher. They don't know she was here, and regardless to the fact that she is a criminal, I don't want her to die." Michael heard silence for a short time, and then a few voices speaking.

Then his mother spoke up again, "If she isn't in immediate danger, we can have a bed ready for her at the HQ."

"Yeah that's fine. Mostly I was just worried about leaving a girl unconscious in Pyrite town" Michael spoke into the small microphone in his cell phone.

"Okay sweety I'll talk to you when you get back, and don't worry I already know what happened at the ONBS." With that she hung up and there was silence on the other end of the phone.

With that taken care of, Michael set about getting Lovrina's Luvdisc back into it's pokeball, which proved quite difficult because that required taking it's pokeball from Lovrina's hip. Michael quickly found that the Luvdisc was hyper protective of it's mistress. With a few minutes of struggling, he managed to pull Lovrina's Luvdisc's pokeball from her belt.

As soon as Lovrina's Pokemon was out of the way he pulled a bandage out from his bag and wrapped it around her head where the injury was. Several times he layered the bandaging around her head. While she hadn't bled too much it was still enough to cause worry, any amount of blood was worrisome.

After Michael was done wrapping Lovrina's head he took his belt off of her waist, where she had strapped it above her own belt. Then he put his belt on himself. Next, he lifted Lovrina into his arms, her unconscious body was limp in his arms. Even if Michael wasn't all that strong, Lovrina weighted very little and would not be any kind of burden to him.

Michael was worried about getting into any kind of trouble with the authorities, so he made his way to where he thought he left his motor bike while staying in the cover of the alleyways. This made his progress much slower, because he had to wind through the passages while avoiding the public.

Eventually, and finally, Michael made it to his motorbike. This was where the difficult part began. He had the multiple hours of of riding ahead of him, whilst keeping the small girl on the bike with him.

Lovrina was not small in a short sense of the word, more like she was incredibly skinny, and small framed. She was just a little bit shorter than Michael.

First, he sat her down on the seat. He allowed for her to lean against the handles of his bike so that she would not fall off. Then he mounted the seat of the bike behind her sleeping form. His next goal was to lean her on him, with her head leaning on one of his shoulders, so that he could drive. His efforts proved to be successful.

Michael started the engine and set out from Pyrite town. He doubted the girl using him as a pillow would manage to stay asleep for the entire ride back to the head quarters. All he could hope for was that when she woke up, that she wouldn't struggle.

Doubtless, once she woke up, if she wasn't too confused, there would be Hell raised. It was likely that she probably had a concussion, considering that she suffered a blow to the head that made her lose consciousness, as well as made her bleed. He could only hope, that if she awoke, she would be far too delirious to try and kill him while on a moving vehicle, or at least smart enough to wait until they weren't moving to attack him.

 **AN: I'd like to think that I'm a good writer but I know that I'm not all that good at doing what I love to do. Review or PM me if you have any feedback for my writing. I would like to know what my readers think of my writing. Constructive criticism is most welcome of all.**

 **Anywhosit**

 **Thanks to the three people who bothered to review my story. I was actually surprised at the amount of feedback I got for this little bit of a story.**

 **Guest: I don't know what else to call you but thanks for the thoughts and help.**

 **Lord of Dong: I would also like to thank you for helping me with the ship name. XDRivalShipping. You're right when you say there isn't much of this pair.**

 **Cottonmouth25: thanks for your opinion in the matter. Michael and Lovrina are fast becoming one of my favorites.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Michael woke up with a forest of trees overlooking him. Quickly he got up into a sitting position, and saw that not too far, though a distance long enough for him to just barely make it out through the trees, was the Pokemon lab headquarters.

 _Damn did she actually attack me?_ Michael hadn't thought that she would have considering they had been on a moving vehicle. It felt like she got some good revenge though. He could feel the large knot in the back of his head throbbing in irritation. That would probably explain why he couldn't remember being assaulted though.

Lovrina had, without warning, hit him in the back of the head with something, and by the looks of it, taken his bike. At least, he could see it anywhere within the distance of his vision in surprisingly thick forest. The fact that the forest was so dense was some kind of anomaly, considering if he drove for just an hour or two south and east of the treeline, there would be barren desert.

Michael sat for awhile collecting his thoughts before finally standing up, making sure to do so slowly. He didn't want to fall over dizzy from getting up too fast with a head injury. After sure of his rightness of stance, Michael began to sweep the area in case his bike was to be found.

He pushed ferns out of the way and dug into bushes but it truly looked as if his bike had been stolen. He could, yet he also couldn't really blame Lovrina. He had knocked her unconscious, and then proceeded to kidnap her in a way. Even I his intentions were only good, she probably didn't think of it that way.

After he was completely sure that there was nothing for him within the trees, Michael headed of to the nearby headquarters. It was a short trek of maybe just thirty minutes. He probably looked more than a little bedraggled to anybody standing outside the facility who saw him drag his sorry self into the western entrance to the building.

The first thing he did, before meeting with his mother lily, or reporting to the professor, was take a shower and change into clothes that didn't make it look like he had spent however long he did in the woods. He guessed based on his dry mouth and rumbling stomach that he had been out of it for at least a day. Being the lazy person he felt he deserved to be, he quenched his thirst while showering, and ate some snack foods he had sitting in his room.

After he was done making himself somewhat presentable he left his room and headed to the elevator. Surprisingly enough he didn't run in Jovi on the way to the elevator. Instead his ride to the top floor of the building was uneventful. Michael found out why once he made his way to his mother's office.

Standing in a small circle(triangle?) was professor Krane, his mother, and Jovi. They hadn't noticed him yet.

"Jovi I know bubby is back now but give him some space for a bit. He looked pretty out of it when he got back. And alone. He didn't even have his bike." lily said.

"But he was gone for almost two days. It should have only taken him a few hours to get back from Pyrite town, even with some extra luggage."Jovi for once in her life sounded concerned.

 _I can't blame them for being concerned for me. I was gone for close to two days after I called them._ Michael prepared himself for the hell storm of Jovi's affection and made his presence known.

"Hi mom, Hi Jovi. I'm back. I kinda got held up a little bit, and lost my bike."

"Yes we saw sweety. I would like to know more about that. Jovi would you mind leaving my office for a bit while the professor and I discuss things with Michael." Lily said.

Jovi harrumphed, but knew better than to put up any argument against her mother. Therefore, she quietly left the three others alone.

Michael crossed his arms, "bubby?"

"That's not important right now. You should tell us why you were gone for so long. It was a few days and even if you are independent I still worry. You didn't leave a call or even just a silly email to explain yourself." Michael's mother crossed her arms now too.

"Well you see. The thing about that... I've kinda been sleeping," lily's face hardened, and Michael knew she was assuming things, but was letting him explain. "Yeah I woke up in a woods just a little ways away from the HQ. Couldn't remember anything. Had a large bump on my head, so I assumed that she knocked me out when she woke up, and stole my bike."

Her face softened a little bit, before a smirk replaced all of her expression. He couldn't tell what she was thinking but then again he wasn't the greatest at reading a persons thoughts.

"I see, well regardless of what you did I'm glad you're back, and I know Jovi was worried about you, so go and attend to her now. She could use a little bit 'bubby' time right about now. She is still worried about her brother. Even when you finally showed back up."

Michael sighed, "yeah sure, I guess I could go and ease her worries."

He left the office and set out to find Jovi which wasn't all that challenging. Michael found her sulking in her room.

Jovi threw herself at Michael in a big hug.

"Big brother where were you this whole time? Jovi was worried so much she was starting to get sick." Jovi didn't so much as cry, yet he could tell that she was very emotional about the situation. He wrapped his own arms around his younger sister in a comforting gesture. "I thought I would have to carry on your legacy and go take out the baddies all on my own."

Michael could tell she was at least _trying_ to be serious, considering he attitude and word choice. All Michael could do was hug her and let her talk her young self out. Which she did.

After complaining about his absence for a few minutes, she switched to just completely random topics, like what she had done while he had been gone for two days, or talking about what lily was teaching her. Unsurprisingly the little girl was taking a shine to her mother's profession. That being a secretary that happens to double as a Pokemon research scientist.

She spent a good ten minutes talking his ear out about shadow Pokemon purification project. Not that he wasn't privy to all the information he told her. Michael was actually quite well informed about the research. He was doing his best to humor her though. Eventually she grew tired though fell asleep sitting up.

Michael being as gentle to his younger sister as possible, picked her up, removed her shoes and long socks, and then laid her under the sheets and covers of her bed. He didn't dare bother with her other clothing though. She could deal with that on her own, and he didn't really need that in his life. After making sure she was well, he got up and went to discuss what happened with the professor in more detail.

 **two days later, Pokemon lab/headquarters**

"Michael I know you've had a recent 'traumatic' experience and all but would you mind heading to Phenac city? We got the deciphered codes back, and it looks like Cipher's next target is the resort city. We had another bike brought in from Gateon port. It should be good, but try not to go getting this one stolen okay? Those things are actually kind of expensive, and the lab can't afford to fund your vigilantism if you keep wasting the money on costly gear."

"Yes professor I understand I don't think it will happen again. I will get going to Phenac city right away just got to pack a few things." Michael said by way of leaving. He walked out of the professor's office, and outside the building. The quickest way to get from the eastern portion of the building to the western portion was of course by going through the external doorways.

Now that he was leaving again, thoughts of Lovrina brought themselves to the forefront of his mind. Those thoughts sat next to preparing himself physically and mentally to face Cipher. Michael went to his room and dug around for awhile until he found what he was looking for. He didn't know why he didn't check his Pokemon related storage box first, but he found a few pokeballs and some healing supplies. With a few changes of clothes, some snack foods from his stash, and a canteen of water.

He didn't know if he would see Lovrina again at Phenac, but probably not. Considering that he more than likely ruined her sneaking-out-of-the-base plan, she was probably found out and punished. That didn't stop him from thinking about the sadistic, beautiful girl. She had beat him up, knocked him unconscious and stolen his stuff, yet he still thought about her.

Regardless of whether or not she would be there, Michael left the building and got on his new bike. He didn't know why they got him a brand new one. Perhaps because they knew that he would put many miles on it. He didn't truly know and really only cared about the fact that they were kind enough to replace his things at all.

He started the bike up with the push a button. It had already been registered under his fingerprints. They had really gone all out in giving him a bike. His old one had had fingerprint technology, but they were expensive. It made him wonder how Lovrina operated his bike, but he chose not to dwell on it too much.

Fingerprint technology became available for commercial use about two decades before then, but hadn't really taken off until just five years ago. It was a truly innovative technology that changed the way security on a personal level worked. Most houses now had some form or other of a fingerprint lock system, even things as small as phones could now accurately tell and owner from other people.

As the owner of the object, Michael would be able to register other people to use it, or take away that privilege from them. As the owner though, another registered user of his stuff couldn't change themselves to the owner without his permission. Everything was stored in an internet database.

Once Michael got the bike going, he turned it to the road and went off into the woods. To him time passed quickly while he was riding. It seemed like not long after starting he was out in the desert heading out to Phenac city. Considering how hot it was during the day, Michael had left in the evening and worn colder weather clothing. Now the moon was above the horizon give the dessert a beautiful light reflective glow.

 **A/N: Yeah I know it's been awhile. Five-ish months to be exact. The thing is, I lost interest in writing for a time. I also fell out of the Pokemon fandom itself, but have no fear if you actually like what I write. I'm back and already have another story up for my favorite ship. Which is surprisingly not XDrivalshipping *gasp* anyway, some shameless self promotion here. Go and read my other stories except for vivre l'aventure. That story hasn't been taken down for the sole purpose of that I might rewrite it or just straight up continue it. I like the idea but am just not feeling it. I made it escalate a bit too quickly for my liking.**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Considering that it would be dangerous to spend the night in the desert, especially alone, Michael rode all night long in order to reach Phenac city. In the early hours of morning, when the sun had just began to rise, and he could still see the moon, the town was a marvel of construction. Every stone and brick fit perfectly into the architecture of the city. Shining under the moonlight was especially inspiring.

Admiring the view was the last of his worries though. The local Pokemon center was closed, and when he checked for hotels, found them to all be closed down as well. It was a mystery. Luckily for him a kind older man allowed him to rest at his home in exchange for some conversation (don't try this in real life kids). The poor old guy was more than a little lonely.

Michael was extremely grateful to the old man for allowing him to rest his tired body and mind.

When he woke up again the old man was gone, probably off running some errand or another, and Michael was left alone. He got up, and started rifling through his travel bag. Only there was one problem. His bag was not where he left it. Damn did that guy steal my stuff? Why would he do that? It's not like I have anything.

Michael did his best to keep calm. He stood up and stretched the sleep out of his muscles. Then, he put his shoes back on and left the house. Outside the sun told him it was about noon, and people were out and about.

There were couples loitering about, and even a few trainers who looked to be discussing Pokemon. Though nowhere to be seen was the older man. He asked around the town but nobody seemed to know anything about the man. Finally fed up with it, Michael went to the mayor's house to complain, seeing as there was not a police force in Phenac city.

As he approached to knock on the door, he could hear some voices inside, and decided to hang around and listen in. The sound was muffled but understandable.

"This whole occupation thing is starting to get terribly drab. Pretending to be citizens of the town is downright horrible. Why did we have to get stuck under Snattle's command? This is the worst for us all." Michael could hear a very feminine voice.

"Yes, yes you have the worst job. You have to sit here and be official while everybody else gets to have fun acting. Anyway I got a cool thing today. Some kid showed up at my house near the crack of dawn, and of course being the good citizen I am, I let him. While he was sleeping I 'took care' of his supplies, in fact I have them right here," Michael heard a small shuffling sound, "but there wasn't much of value, just some traveling supplies, but the real find was that the kid had pokeballs. You know how rare they are so I did take them." It was the voice of the old man, but it sounded quite a bit younger.

Michael's eye's narrowed. He was beginning to piece together what was going on. He hadn't undressed or anything, so he still happened to have his Pokemon on him. Quietly as he could, and doing his best to not attract attention of the other town members, whom he also suspected, Michael released both his teddiursa and espeon he held up his hand in a shushing movement in order to signal to them not to make noise.

Then he whispered to his espeon, "use confusion, and bust the door in."

His loyal and faithful espeon followed his command without question. The air around the thick wooden door began to bend, and warp. Espeon was twisting the very space around the door with her power. He had difficulty watching, as the distortion was bothering his eyes, making them water up. He could see, though, that the bending of the air was consolidating at one point.

Instantly and in an unexpected display of power, the distortion disappeared. Suddenly the door exploded inward with the force of a ryhorn's take down attack. The whole world turned into chaos as Michael charged in guns blazing, teddiursa and espeon followed suit. In front of him stood two very confused people who were recovering quickly.

Then the woman said to the man, "run upstairs and grab the thing!"

The man, his true target ran, yet he couldn't focus on him yet.

Michael shouted, "espeon!" immediately the woman doubled over unconscious. The other man would have had time to prepare a Pokemon, so Michael quickly grabbed his bag which was lying on the floor. Rifling through until he found a pokeball, he loaded it into the snag machine's glove. Then, as he was running upstairs, he tapped on his headgear allowing the small glass screen for detecting shadow Pokemon to slide into place over his left eye.

His anticipation of the man was correct, a murkrow and seviper stood at the ready, or rather, the murkrow hovered. He had had espeon go in front just in case this situation happened. Her defense was powerful, even if she had a weakness to the murkrow. Two attacks came at his espeon, both of them hit, but she stood her ground enough for teddiursa to sweep in and knock the murkrow back.

Any command issued by his foe blurred into the background. It didn't matter though as his murkrow was held down by teddiursa and espeon had dealt with seviper. The man dropped a letter when Michael grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall.

"Tell me who you are. Are you a member of Cipher? You don't have to answer, but if you do I may take it easy on you." Michael forced his right hand onto the mans throat.

"I am a member of Cipher. What are you going to do? Everybody in Phenac city is a member of Cipher not a single person living as a resident is actually a citizen." the man was turning blue at that point. Michael didn't let go until he was unconscious.

There was something peculiar attached to his belt, and when Michael removed it, the uniform of a Cipher member was revealed. The object in question was about half the size of his hand and a silvery plastic color. To him the various colors, and buttons was more than a little bit confusing. Instead of investigating this obvious piece of technology, Michael decided to head back down stairs, but not before grabbing the letter the now unconscious man had been holding.

Once on the first floor of the building again, Michael placed the object into his bag and slipped it on. Only then did he open the letter, which was more of a note.

The residents have finally all been completely relocated to the gym basement. The procedure of replacing the entire town with Cipher members has been complete. Keep up the good work and you will be rewarded. Don't get found out, and if you do, you had better wish they kill you.

-Admin Snattle

It appeared that Michael's assumptions were almost entirely correct. Cipher had been slowly replacing the members of Phenac city, and hiding them in the basement of the town's gym.

Before anything happened, Michael knew he would have to stop the problem. The people who had been in the basement the longest were probably extremely uncomfortable. They were forced into prison like conditions and probably under constant surveillance.

Michael stepped out the door, or rather, archway, and quickly made his way a good distance from the mayor's house. His goal was to get to the gym while battling the least amount of people. Considering that the mayor's house was on the edge of town, and somewhat separated, he didn't think it likely for any of the other Cipher members to have heard him.

Just in case though, he recalled both of his Pokemon, and did his best to act casually. The gym was in the center of town, so there would be a thicker concentration of his enemies.

Thankfully, Michael was in luck as he was not assaulted by a single person, even though he passed by a number of people. The process was nerve wracking. He knew that he was in constant danger, yet was relatively safe. As long as he kept up appearances he knew for a fact that he would be safe. The Cipher members would not dare to risk compromising he mission unless he went first. That was the old man's fatal mistake. The old man acted, probably, against orders by interfering with him, and now Michael knew the poor guy was in for it.

Everywhere he went, it seemed that Michael ruined the lives of the Cipher members, starting with Lovrina, and by causation, Naps. Michael still, even quite some time later, shuddered at the thought of what Lovrina did to Naps. It was probably torture. Somewhere along the lines of much physical beating, perhaps the same thing he went through in the alley, but multiplied.

Eventually, Michael made it to the center of town where the gym was. Of course the gym was just a historic piece that had been renovated to fit the times. The Orre region had lost contact with the Pokemon league some years before. Trainers didn't often come to Orre in search of a journey. After all there wasn't much in the way to do. The few trainers that did visit the region were hardcore. They were the trainers worthy enough to compete in league battles and they came for the various battle resorts hosted in the far reached of the region.

The sliding doors of the gym opened when they detected his presence, giving him access to the interior of the building. Standing inside, on a painted battle field were two trainers discussing something. What they were talking about, he did not know, and also did not care. They were just members of Cipher he needed to defeat in order to free the towns citizens. He didn't know how to get to the gym's basement, because there was no obvious entrance but he would figure it out.

His first order of business would be to battle the two Cipher members. They were the largest obstacle currently in his path, and he wasn't going to stop until they were both gone.

Michael walked up the small set of steps leading to the field of battle.

"Hey I know who you are, now come battle me so I can free the citizens." As usual, Michael ran in without much thought. He always relied on his power as a trainer to win, because it was a rare occurrence for him to lose. Most of the Cipher members didn't have very strong Pokemon either. Usually the only ones that caused him any trouble whatsoever were the admins (Of which he had faced only one), and their seconds (also one).

Naps was not a particularly tough opponent, but definitely much more so than the common rabble. Lovrina herself was a skilled trainer in her own right, coupled with is attraction to her it was a deadly combination.

The two people started in shock. Michael saw the look of unspoken communication, before he was thrown to the ground as yet again, one of his quarry escaped. The one left was a pretty, young looking girl, but that was of course, a ruse. Michael assumed that the small device I had "found" was the cause of the shift in shape.

"Are you ready stranger? I'm going to stop you here, and just in case I sent my counter part to warn the boss." the woman had a very conceited look about her. Quickly she sent out her Pokemon one of which his headset recognized as a shadow roselia. It didn't appear that the woman was aware of what his snag machine was, as normally a trainer aware of his ability to steal already owned Pokemon were very defensive. The snag machine could, after all, capture more than just shadow Pokemon.

Capturing none shadow Pokemon was not his goal though. Quickly as he could, Michael activated his machine, and the charged pokeball, whose safety had been overridden came out of the gloved portion of his machine. He saw the Cipher member's eyes widen as she realized what was now happening. It was too late for her to react though. With the practiced aim of a veteran trainer, Michael sent the snag ball as the professor had named them, flying towards the roselia.

Considering the nature of snag balls and how the machine modifies the pokeball, there was no struggle of catching a trainer owned pokeball like catching wild Pokemon. Once he got the roselia in his ball it was over, and he owned yet another shadow Pokemon.

Anger, and frustration, and loss clouded this foe's eyes. Michael decided to finish the battle then. He hadn't even sent out a Pokemon yet, but now, he released his spinarak from its pokeball. The small spider Pokemon let out a shriek that was definitely not equal to its size. The fierce emotionless, of his Pokemon never failed to gift him with unease. It was a result of the torture of making them into shadow Pokemon.

While Michael could rehabilitate the shadow Pokemon they probably would not be the same, considering that for an indefinite amount of time they were turned into machines of battle.

"Spinarak bug bite," Michael commanded.

His Pokemon complied and his opponent's last Pokemon, a sunflora, was taken out of battle. None of his none shadow Pokemon would be able to do that. Shadow Pokemon were exceptionally powerful. Normal Pokemon could not compare in battle, strength wise, but there came some drawbacks. A shadow Pokemon was not very free thinking. Sometimes they wouldn't listen to their trainer, or of course, become very temperamental. Until his spinarak was rehabilitated, it would be very powerful, yet challenging to handle.

The same would go for his new roselia. Michael would do his best to fix the wrongs done to the Pokemon.

Once the woman was defeated, he didn't bother with dealing with her, and let her run away. He had to deal with figuring out how to free the citizens. Michael looked around the gym until he found what looked like a control panel. There was a small section labeled [elevator]. There was an issue though. A key hole. Very surprising considering the technology they could have.

Michael assumed that the man who had run off was the owner of the elevator key. He knew that finding him would be another challenge in this city. The Cipher members could disguise themselves as anybody with their small devices. The search would be extensive, and Michael was likely to do what he always did. He would smash through every fake citizen until he found the key.

A/N: I've been riding on a motor coach so I have so much time to write. Anyway here is another chapter for you all.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Michael spent the rest of the afternoon that he had sneaking up on the Cipher members, and knocking them unconscious before frisking them for the key. He had kept a count for no other reason than to amuse himself. There was, after all, an entire city of Cipher team members to go through. He hadn't realized just how powerful the organization was. They were able to occupy an entire city, yet from what he had heard, this was just one of their ongoing operations.

Eventually, Michael overheard a crucial piece of information. He had been approaching a pair of Cipher when he heard a bit of information that solved his problem, but at the same time, opened up a number of more issues.

"The boss went down to interrogate the citizens. Apparently a number of our group has gone missing, and we can't even find bodies."

Michael knew that would happen eventually. It was a mere matter of time until someone discovered that their teammates were slowly and quietly disappearing. That fact didn't matter though. To him the most surprising thing was how quickly the missing people were identified.

"Apparently, the prisoners didn't know anything, and Snattle wasn't able to get anything out of them so he went back to the Colosseum. He was dealing with a couple of reporters from ONBS."

Michael chose this time to act. He had gotten what he came for and still more. Now he had an opportunity to impress ONBS by saving their crew members.

He didn't even bother with knocking them out. Even if they discovered him, the worst they could do would be to assault him, which he could handle. The best case scenario would be for them to completely ignoring him.

Getting to the arena was not the most challenging task. The only issue was the guard stationed at the entrance to the Colosseum. Even then, ordinary trainers posed no threat to Michael, not even the criminal ones. Even if they were criminals that didn't make them any more powerful than other trainers. Except for the occasional shadow Pokemon, there was not much of a challenge in Cipher. The reason not every member of Cipher had a shadow Pokemon was purely a money issue. Creating shadow Pokemon took money and time, though as Michael understood it, the technique of creating a shadow Pokemon was constantly improving.

Eventually every member of Cipher would have a shadow Pokemon, not just the privileged would be powerful. That was the true threat and potential of the shadow Pokemon project.

Inside of the Colosseum, but not in the arena, it was empty. The only sound was that of the crashing waterfalls from every direction. That was a cool theme of Phenac city. Even though they lived in the desert, quite deep in the desert, they still managed to find the water and use the technology to perform a great feat of engineering.

Everything was beautiful. The entire city had gorgeous architecture. It was a big shame that Michael was not able to just stand an appreciate it. He was certain that a rough battle was near. As long as he had espeon, Michael wouldn't lose a battle.

His espeon was a psychic type Pokemon, and those kind of Pokemon were rare and powerful. It is a misconception that it takes a psychic in order to train a psychic. Being an actual psychic just made training all Pokemon, not just the more supernatural ones, easier.

That was his secret for winning effortlessly against Cipher. He was a vigilante, and felt very justified in using force to stop them. That included using his espeon's abilities to beat them. It was a violent and painful way to lose a fight. Michael acknowledge that manipulating the people's minds was not the most comfortable way to go.

That was why he preferred to use it as a last resort, or in a particularly urgent situation. Some might have even called it inhumane, yet he was dealing with criminals. Using a Pokemon's abilities as deadly force against humans was against the law, but so was what Cipher did, and they posed an actual threat to society and the world. Therefore, he knew that no trouble with the law would come to him.

So, Michael steeled himself for battle, preparing a Pokeball in his snag machine, and activating the scanning screen. Then he opened the door. Inside the giant stone Colosseum, two members of what he only assumed were ONBS recorders stood in the middle. It looked like they were being interrogated by a man with rather odd clothing.

Michael assumed, based on his experience with Lovrina, that Cipher admins could dress the way they wished, as long as it fit the style of the uniform. That was why he also assumed that the man was Snattle. He had been assuming a lot of things recently though, so it was time for his luck to run out. Instead of approaching Snattle, two members of Cipher did what they did best, that is, appear out of seemingly thin air.

Michael battled them, and it was obvious that he was dealing with an admin. The other one was not exceptionally skilled and only had one Pokemon. The admin, however, was a great deal more adept, and happened to have more than just a tiny spearow.

Michael needed to defeat three Pokemon, one less than the number that he had. Except his fourth Pokemon was a brand new shadow roselia. That made them relatively even, and though none of his Pokemon became to injured to carry on, they were winded by the battle. Quickly as he could, before Snattle decided to assault him, he administered aid to their bodies. Even his powerful espeon, the prize of his party, had battle wounds.

He was certain that Snattle was far more powerful than Lovrina.

Once he was done, he looked up and saw that Snattle had been waiting on him. The man stood with his arms crossed, and foot tapping. Snattle had strange body proportions. He was tall and skinny in his limbs and face, yet had quite a belly.

Michael recalled espeon and let out spinarak. He was certain this would be the battle that would allowed him to unlock the heart of his little spider Pokemon. Once his spinarak had once again regained it's emotions, the world would be a better place. There would be one less shadow Pokemon, and one less problem to deal with.

With his spinarak every command had to be firm, and every action a command. So when he moved forward to approach Snattle he said-

"Follow me spinarak." and his Pokemon followed. Teddiursa did not need to be commanded in order for it to follow him. Michael liked to think that his teddiursa was all the more loyal to him, because of the fact that he had saved it from the shadow.

Snattle spoke, "Shall we begin, child? I lack the time to bother with you so just allow me to make it quick."

"Yeah sure I can make it quick." Michael smirked putting on an air of confidence.

The battle began.

"Go lunatone, and castform." Snattle's snobby voice was beginning to get on Michael's nerves.

Michael likewise allowed for his two Pokemon to join the battle.

"Prepare yourselves," Michael said.

Michael made the first move not even allowing for Snattle to have an inch. He knew from the HUD on his snag machine that the lunatone was a shadow Pokemon. His first move was of course to try and capture it. His plan failed of course. As an admin of Cipher, Snattle was well informed about the snag machine.

When Michael activated the machine and sent his snag ball flying, Snattle moved in front and blocked it, smacking the now useless ball out of the air. Then Snattle launched his first attack.

"Lunatone use shadow sky!" he began to snicker as if he had already won. Michael understood why, as the battle instantly became many times more difficult. Snattle hoisted what looked like a steel umbrella out from under his cape, goodness knows how he stored it there, and opened it above himself. The ONBS camera crew moved as far away as they could in fearful speed. They knew what was about to happen.

Snattle's lunatone aimed itself towards the sky, and Michael could see in his snag HUD that a powerful force of shadow power was building up into a small ball. Michael had yet to see this type of shadow Pokemon attack. He knew that they had unique properties, and was beginning to wonder. His wondering ceased though, as the lunatone fired it's attack into the sky, and everything up above became cloudy with a deep purple.

Rain began to fall, and Michael saw why Snattle had an umbrella made from metal. The shadow rain fell onto all surfaces within quite a large diameter of its origin point. Michael could smell the burning sensation before he could feel it. He could also hear the cries of his Pokemon in pain before he could feel it. Then the pain began and everywhere the rain touched his body it burned.

Michael began to understand the true nature of the threat to the world by the shadow Pokemon. Cipher could create powerful Pokemon with unknown abilities, such as a move more powerful than giga impact without the repercussions, or an acid rain.

Michael bit through the pain and acted quickly. He pulled the pokeball containing espeon, and through it on the ground. His espeon came into the world, and Michael warned her.

"Espeon, use your psychic to block the rain from hitting us!" Michael shouted through the excruciating pain. Now Michael knew he would need to finish this fight quickly. He wouldn't be able to use espeon to fight, because she was defending him and his Pokemon from the shadow rain. Spinarak was not effected very much by the rain, and Michael knew it was because the shadow attack would not work so well on another Pokemon with the shadow attribute.

"Okay, we can still do this guys. Teddiursa use metal claw on lunatone. See if that stops the rain." his teddiursa complied, flashing its claws as it made lunatone it's target.

"I'm afraid that's not how it works around here. Castform use weather ball!" Snattle commanded. Michael wasn't sure what a weather ball in the shadowy rain would do, and he wasn't willing to find out. There was also an odd glint in Snattle's eye. A look that Michael didn't much like. Regardless, he had to get teddiursa out of there and fast just in case.

"Teddiursa move out of the way." Michael said waving his arm to the side. Teddiursa complied. Then Michael knew he had made a fatal mistake, because Snattle was not aiming at teddiursa. No, Snattle had said he planned to finish the battle fast, and he meant it. Michael moved as fast as he could and ran in front of the attack.

Time seemed to slow down as Michael recognized that he was in imminent danger. Nonetheless he did not back down and took the hit of the shadow ball( can we call it that?) and went down in front of his espeon. All that Michael's poor espeon could do was keep the rain from falling on her master, as he had ordered. She did not want him to come to harm and thus, could not fight. The psychic circle of protection from the rain shrank to a considerably smaller size, teddiursa moved with it in order to avoid the pain and protect his master.

Michael lay on the ground in obvious pain, and barely managed to notice that the rain stopped. He could see that Snattle was approaching with both of his Pokemon out and ready just in case he tried anything. That was when Michael's vision went blank and he lost consciousness.

Snattle crouched down to look at Michael's unconscious body.

"hmm... what should I do with you. You soiled my plan of replacing the entire city. Most of my underlings are knocked out in some broom closet or another. How am I going to repay you for ruining my plans with the ship. Well I do guess we are nearly done, but you could still do some punishment." Snattle snickered.

Out from the shadows somewhere came a slim figure approached. Snattle had to admit she was good at what she did. Most of their stealthier missions were covered by her. That is until she got demoted after flubbing up and then broke probation orders. Now Lovrina had been put under him until she proved that she could still be a leader, if not she would either be "taken care of" or would have to stay under his orders.

Quite frankly he didn't want the temperamental, sarcastic, and sassy woman under him. She was a great bother to him, even if she got everything he said done, and in an efficient and timely manner. He just couldn't handle her attitude.

"What are you doing here Lovrina?" he frowned.

"Yes well I came back because I completed the mission you assigned for me, you loathsome beast. Then I came here and saw you battling with the person who cause all this misfortune to befall me, and I couldn't help but wonder something," Lovrina crossed on arm and rested her other, on her arm and her chin on her fist, "may I have the pleasure of dealing with him?"

Snattle smirked at this now. He was certain Lovrina would leave him alone for a few hours if he gave her a toy. This would solve his problem of getting rid of the boy as well. Lovrina was well known for her brutal practices, and Snattle wasn't sure if the boy would make it out alive, especially after what he had apparently done to her.

"Very well Lovrina do as you wish, enjoy your private time with the boy and clean up any messes okay." Snattle snickered at his own hilarity.

Lovrina of course was less than pleased but did not voice her concerns.

"Yes, yes, I will so totally enjoy this. Now if you don't mind maybe I can swipe up his Pokemon too?" Lovrina thought she was pushing it, but didn't think it harmful to try. Snattle just waved her on dismissively. Lovrina set to work attempting to get all three of Michael's Pokemon into their pokeballs. This wasn't an easy task though, because, the spinarak was a belligerent shadow Pokemon, espeon was far to over protective of Michael and she didn't even know about teddiursa. The small bear was probably the lest of her worries.

 **A/N: So here it is, chapter 6. I don't know what you, as my readers, are thinking about the story right now, so I wouldn't mind a little bit of feedback. I may sound like I'm begging for reviews, and that is a true thing. I am completely desperate for some feedback on my writing skills. As usual I hope you all enjoyed the read.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Michael woke up. The first thing he noticed was the blaring light above him, and the fact that he was tied up. Michael lay in a reclined position, his arms were strapped down in two places and so were his legs. Snattle had probably left his midsection free of any ties in order to allow him to struggle. Quickly he found out that it was not Snattle who had captured him.

In a chair to his left, with one leg crossed over the other, Lovrina impatiently tapped on her thigh. Her other hand rested on her chin, as she stared intently at him. A smile creeped up her pretty face when she saw that he was awake.

"Hello there, Michael nice to meet you again. I assume that you can at least guess why you are here, tied up, with your shirt off, and torture tools next to you. That's right! I'm here to get a little bit of revenge. As a _former_ member of the Cipher research and development team, as in, I was like, the head of that particular branch, I happen to know about torture." Michael realized that he was completely in for it.

He had thought that this kind of situation could happen, given his line of work, but he couldn't believe that it was now happening. Michael wasn't sure if he would be able to handle very much pain.

Lovrina spoke again, "I've been examining your body for a good hour trying to decide where to start, and I think that I have decided to start with your forearm." she smiled a creepy smile, that somehow barely marred her pretty features.

She pulled out some tool that he could not identify. It looked as if it was a needle, a cord attached to the back end. He wasn't sure what was about to happen and he didn't really want to know.

"Roselia use your pain enhancer poison, I want to make this enjoyable." Lovrina said, and her rosy Pokemon approached. Her roselia looked much healthier than his. It was obviously better cared for than his new roselia had been. The roses both red and blue looked far more colorful than his. Then again, his roselia was also a shadow Pokemon.

Michael didn't feel any different, yet. Soon however, he became aware of the pain of his acid rain burns. Lovrina bent over and Michael heard a small whirring sound, which he assumed meant that whatever the tool in Lovrina's hand was, it was a machine. That made him even more terrified for his life, considering that a specialized tool for death was about to be administered to him.

Lovrina brought the needle down to his arm, and he grit his teeth in preparation. He knew that whatever was going to happen, it would be many more times painful than normal. Michael felt a heavy sting in his arm. He clenched his teeth together until they were sore because it certainly did hurt.

The pain was bearable enough though for him to not shout or scream, or make any noise that indicated his pain. He kept his eyes closed for the entire time that Lovrina worked on his arm. What he didn't know was that the pain was also made much worse because of the shadow acid burn.

After a while, the sound of the machine stopped and the sting faded somewhat. On his ear, Michael could feel the soft breath, of what he assumed was Lovrina. He heard her whisper in his ear.

"Its over now, you can open your eyes. You're a big boy now."

Michael did as her enticing voice said and slowly opened his eyes, which were slightly blinded by the light of the lamp above him. He couldn't even shield his eyes because his hands were tied down.

"For your information, roselia did not multiply your pain, she had been blocking it. I had her add the reagent that stopped the nerve blocking reaction. It was all invisible powder and the like, so you totally couldn't see or smell it." Lovrina said in a passive way.

That just made Michael a little more than confused. Then Lovrina loosened the restraints on his arms. This gave him the freedom to sit up. Lovrina moved on to remove the straps on his legs while he examined what she had done. It was rather odd that she had been torturing him, and then suddenly let him go. Then he realized what she had truly done.

The machine with the needle had been a tattoo machine. The ink she had drilled into his arm? She had tattooed her own name into his forearm. Lovrina.

Michael felt his face heat up with embarrassment. There engraved in ink, and permanent ink at that was her name. The area around his ink was red and inflamed, quite sore and stingy.

"That's just a present from me to you. I needed to get my revenge somehow and this was a perfect idea. I know I'm not the most artsy of people," it was true, the writing was a little bit shaky, "but now I can totally stay with you and remind you of the fear you should have of me! If I find you again and you remove it I will not so not be happy. This was the best way I could think of to cause you pain, and apparently embarrassment so that's a score."

Michael swung his legs over the side and stood up. He recognized that he was no longer in an exceptional amount of danger. He stretched his arms out and ran a hand through his hair.

Lovrina handed him his pokeball belt, and in her other hand was a key. Then, she handed him the large arm length piece that was his snag machine.

"I managed to swipe this from Snattle. I don't like him, and I know that he won't even realize that its gone or that it was me who took it. Anyway, now that you have your stuff back, I think I can escort you out now." she said.

Lovrina stepped toward the door with a hop in her step. Michael followed her and did his best to ignore the pain in his right forearm. He strapped his belt back on to his waist and put the elevator key into the small pouch on his belt. Then Michael set about the process of reattaching his snag machine. It took up most of the 40 minute walk to the outside of Phenac city.

The machine was quite complicated and Michael had to sit and remember how to put it on. Even though he had done it a number of times, his right arm was in pain, and he had gone through a bit of a traumatic experience. First he was scalded by shadow acid rain, the he was captured, and a tattoo was forcefully implanted on him. Michael wouldn't dare to remove it, for he did fear Lovrina beautiful as she was.

Lovrina was like a rose, very much pretty to look at and of the highest quality, yet there where thorns, and it would always be a good idea to be careful when grabbing it. Some of the thorns were larger, and longer, and would therefore hurt more. Some of those thorns would be quite a bit shorter, and while still prickly and painful, they would be less so.

At the gate to Phenac his bike still sat there as it had when he left it there. Leaning next to the bike was his travel bag, and what appeared to be an extra canteen of water.

"I just wanted to show you your stuff before you go and free the citizens." Lovrina said, "I think I, like, will go with you, maybe improve my own image, a little bit." then Lovrina did something completely unexpected.

When Michael turned back to the city with Lovrina, she turned to him, and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Michael walked back towards the gym with Lovrina, and he was in a bit of a daze, more than a little surprised and embarrassed.

When Michael got back to HQ he was greeted directly by the professor. He was escorted back into the the building and walked with professor Krane into his office. There, Michael briefed him on the happenings of the town, leaving out, of course, the part were he was beaten, and kidnapped by Lovrina, as well as those extra little bits.

Professor Krane gave him some time to rest, after all, he had gone through quite the ordeal. The professor just didn't know what kind of ordeal. He thought he had an idea but it was much worse for Michael than he realized. At that time Michael happened to have on a long sleeved shirt so nobody could see the blemish on his skin.

After the professor was done with him, Michael went to his room in the other part of the building for some rest and reflection time. Not that he hadn't had plenty of reflection time on his way to the lab while driving his bike. To others, Michael probably seemed like he had been spending a lot of time alone, and he had. There were things in his life that had come up quite recently that were rather alarming.

Now Michael had a tattoo of a girl's name on his arm. If anybody, particularly Jovi or his mother, he was certain a firestorm would be coming his way. So while he was showering, (and hissing at the pain of his arm) Michael thought up a plan. Several plans actually. His last resort plan involved completely running from his problems, and devoting himself to the vigilante work he was so proud of. His first, easiest, and most likely option of action would be to just do what he had done during his talk with the professor.

Michael checked his closet after showering and found plenty of longer sleeved shirts and even a few sweaters. That might have surprised most, considering how hot it almost always got in the Orre region. Then again, it also got quite frigid at night. Winter in the Orre region was more like late spring for the average temperate climate.

Another great thing about wearing long sleeves in the desert was avoiding sunburns. Even if wearing a long sleeved shirt or jacket was not the most comfortable thing to do temperature wise, in fact it made him a bit on the overheated side. Wearing longer clothing did keep the burn of the sun away. Being a little bit hot was likewise not as much of a problem for Michael, as he rode a bike nearly everywhere he went, and was therefore rather well ventilated.

Michael was tired now. He wasn't going to force himself to stay awake and greet his sibling, and mother. The long drive back from Phenac city was very tiring for him, and a borderline two day trip.

Michael would wait for the morning in order to greet his family. Lily was a patient mother, especially with him, who might be called a problem child. He was after all the self proclaimed end to all of Cipher. He was a vigilante, who technically participated in illegal activities. He wouldn't be caught, and the lab would protect him in the court if he was.

Michael knew his mother worried about him and his profession. It was dangerous work, and he didn't plan on telling them about what had happened involving Snattle. They only needed to know that he saved the citizens of Phenac city from a threat, and was thanked for it. That was one of the things he lived for. That is, the appreciation of people.

He had a good life, if not a dangerous one, for a man who wasn't quite an adult yet. The lab kept him well supplied, and in turn, he provided them with a sought after service. He was essentially the security for the lab, even if they had actual security he was better, and only asked for funding to do what he wanted.

Michael laid in bed, and fell asleep.

 **A/N: As I usually say, would you as my viewers please give me some constructive criticism. That is the thing I truly crave. You don't even have to leave I review, which I know most others request, as it brings them more publicity. Just PM me and tell me what you all think about my writing.**


	8. My Apologies

**Hey all it's me and I'm back. I had to take a leave of absence due to stuff with my schooling. My High School, for some reason, still has a senior project. While it is a good thing for the students to commit to something, and complete it, I chose a project that I began to hate. You know what I picked to do? I wrote a flipping novel. It isn't complete and probably never will be, because I hate it. My other story, Vivre L'aventure is longer than it, if that shows you how well it's going. It wasn't fun to write for, but nevertheless it was a good experience. Nevertheless, I believe it has made me a better writer, and strengthened me over the long months away from my many pet projects.**

 **But because of my senior project, I haven't been able to write for what I love, and you guys as my readers have suffered. Have no fear, because I will get started with my writing again. I plan to rewrite all of my stories, starting with Unexplainable Thoughts. I want to get right down to nitty gritty, and by rewrite, I don't mean go through the original document and fix some things up, nay. I plan to go through the story and take some settings, scenes, and personalities, and just give the whole story a complete overhaul.**

 **I guess that's it for now. Thank you for all of my readers who have read and reviewed for me in my time of absence. That novel really was not fun or exciting to write, but I'm already about to puke with excitement over my projects, and I've barely even started. Have a good day, and if this little update excited you because you thought I was updating then rest assured, soon I will be getting out the revamped versions of my stories.**

 **I plan to keep the old stories up for a while. At least until I get a few chapters deep into all of them. I think it will let my readers experience what I was originally trying to create.**

 ** _My best wishes for you all._**


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